YACHTING

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 122, 19 November 1932, Page 20

YACHTING

By "Mainsail." CLUB HANDICAPS

RACING COMMENCES

NOTES AND COMMENTS

The Evans Bay racing, programme starts to-day with, handicap racing for all classes except launches, and the indications are that record "fields" will be seen. The inactivity since the opening of the season ceremony on Labour Day has made most of the bay yachtsmen very restive, especially as there has been such bad weather for both of the Koyal Port Nicholson-events, in which most of the bay fleet were looking forward to taking part. This fact, coupled with the advent of the new boats already mentioned in this column, should make for very keen racing. The residents along the hilltops of Evans Bay are showing quite a keen interest in the sport, and it is expectedthat more.of their young hopefuls will take up the sport of yachting. . Leaving the ■ bungs out of the Kotare's transom has given • the crew some good pumping exercise, and her skipper food;for thought in. trying to discover where she is leaking so badly. Standardised Sport. Among the numerous sports it is recognised that those which have been standardised are among the best, writes "Fair Lead." There aro very strong reasons why the sport of yachting should be standardised, and the openminded yachtsman surveying the fields of sport can readily make the striking comparisons that There are the marksman, the oarsman, the batsman, and many others. Their, achievements are attributed, and rightly so; to the man every time, but with the yachtsmen so seldom on-equal terms, seamanship by the best man becomes more -bften obscured. With class boats, and class racing, this would not bo so. The yachtsman is brilliant, but he should ao longer allow his sport to be retarded by competitions in which the conditions

are so unequal. More power to tho Evans Bay Club for their splendid fleet of one-design class boats, the Taurangas. What.an example this- is to those who harbour family, knockabout, or variety boats of varying shapes and sizes. "Fair Lead" believes that the existing anomalies will gradually give place to true one-design class boats, with seopo for real improvement, not In boats, but in skippers, when their prowess will no longer be in doubt. Heretaunga Notes. Although the opening race set down for Saturday was postponed on account of the heavy weather, five of the Heretaunga; boats were out close inshore and gave a spectacular display in the high wind. B. Upton handled his new charge, the Takapuna Nukumai, remarkably well, and shows promise of becoming quite a good skipper. The Idyllic again earned a place in the news with.a sensational burst of speed./It was estimated that she was travelling at about 20 miles an hour while planing in a white squall. On Sunday the crews had spinnaker practice in readiness for the next race. .''•.■".. ■ A, Runaway Win. : The Galatea's comfortable . win in the second-class race was the main feature of the Boyal Port Nicholson Club 's opening handicaps on Saturday afternoon. She was home 40min ahead of the next boat to finish, and her handicap of 2min enabled her to hold first place by the ridiculous margin of 25min from the little Mini (20min). The weather 'conditions ,: suited - her admirably, but even so, on her showing she appeared to merit promotion to the first class. Kona Boat Plans. The views expressed by Mr. G. Huntley, A.1.N.A., of Wellington, regarding the difference between the original and redrawn Bona plans should attract wide interest. Mr. Huntley had an article published in the "Yachting World," London, in 1926, describing the Sanders Cup boats and reproducing their lines, and since then he has taken a keen interest in the class, and recently in the Auckland Association's proposal. He writes to "Mainsail" as follows: "If I am correctly informed, their proposal: entails the lowering of the keel profile at the bow section, and an alteration at the stem, amounting in the first case to as much as ljin, while the water-line will, of course, also be effected. Should' this be so, it could not possibly be considered a fairing of the. lines, but is a radical alteration to the form of the bow, .no doubt with the idea of increasing the speed. It is difficult to see what other reason there could be. If different test moulds have to be applied to boats in the same class, it cannot be a one-design claps, and had better be called a restricted class. It can hardly be claimed by the AucklandY. and M.B. Association that the alternation will lave no offeet on the speed, in which ease it would be purposeless, and if it will' affect tho speed, as they evidently thinw, how can: the chairman state that conditions will be absolutely fair for the owners of the Bona boats?"

Plimmerton's 12ft lOin Q boat, the Daniel, is doing quite well in her trial spins, and should give a very, good account of herself this season.